


I Thought You'd Never Ask

by NewNewDoctor (DisnerdingAvenger)



Series: The Physician and His Flower [9]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, and the opportunity presented itself, basically I wanted to write soft human!Ten and Rose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-06
Updated: 2019-03-06
Packaged: 2019-11-13 00:33:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18021449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DisnerdingAvenger/pseuds/NewNewDoctor
Summary: Theo Noble is a doctoral student studying at the University of Cambridge. Rose Tyler works in the library's café. He's fancied her for the past five years. Will he finally pluck up the courage to ask her out on a date before he graduates?





	I Thought You'd Never Ask

**Author's Note:**

  * For [meganseverafter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/meganseverafter/gifts).



> This idea spawned from me asking a friend if she wanted one of my graduation photos and her response being, "Jessica, are you asking me to go steady?" Obviously writing a corny TenRose fic was the only appropriate way to answer.

Theo Noble was a smart young man and he was proud of it. At twenty-five years old, he was just two weeks away from obtaining not a double, but a _triple_ doctorate in History, Biomedical Engineering, and Comparative Literature from the University of Cambridge. To put it plainly, he was sort of a genius.

So why then, in the name of all that was holy, could he not figure out how to ask Rose Tyler to go on a date with him? It’s not like asking people out was _hard_. In comparison to decoding and transcribing recovered manuscripts, isolating the shifting reproductive genes of African tree frogs, and translating epics written in Ancient Greek, it should have been a piece of cake.

_“Hello, Rose Tyler; would you like to have tea with me?” “What say you to some free chips? My treat.” “How would you like to go for a walk with me? It’s a beautiful day, after all – but not nearly as beautiful as you.”_

He’d rehearsed hundreds of possible scenarios in his head over the past five years since first setting eyes on her, and he’d planned to execute each and every one of said scenarios – but then, as soon as he was face to face with her, he’d chicken out and instead blurt out some bizarre fact about Victorian pornography; the fascinating chemical makeup of the human brain on cocaine; or how Emily Brontë may have had a secret lover on the moors who was the inspiration for Heathcliff in _Wuthering Heights_. Without fail, Rose would always laugh and offer him one of her cheeky smiles and he’d walk away with a pounding heart, red cheeks, and a tie that suddenly felt all too tight.

Hundreds of failed attempts later, his time was running out. Two weeks – he only had _two weeks_ left on this campus before he’d actually have to set out into the world and make something of himself. That in and of itself was a bit terrifying, but the prospect of never seeing Rose Tyler again made it far worse. So, with his head held high, clad in his smartest suit, Theo Noble made his way over to the library’s café to remedy the situation. There was nothing he could do about the looming horror of graduation; May 31st was going to come whether he wanted it to or not. But he _could_ do something about the possibility of Rose slipping through his fingers.

* * *

Rose Tyler had worked in Cambridge University Library's little café since she was nineteen. It was silly and sentimental, but she had applied for the job as a way of experiencing life on the campus of a university that she knew she would never get into. Having let a stupid boyfriend convince her to drop out of secondary school before getting her A-Levels, she knew that any application she filled out would be blithely ignored even _if_ she went back, finished, and graduated with top marks. The fact that she dropped out on its own would bias the admissions committee against her. But this job? Sure, she was just making tea and lattes for students, faculty, and staff all day long, but she was still _there_. She was working in one of the world’s most renowned libraries and she could read any of the books that she liked, as long as they weren’t stored behind glass display cases. You see, Rose Tyler was _also_ smart; maybe even as smart as Theo Noble. She’d just fallen in with the wrong people at a pivotal time.

Theo met Rose, and vice versa, on his first day at Cambridge. He’d graduated a few months prior with an undergraduate degree from Oxford and his family had all expected him to continue on there afterward; it was tradition, after all. His clever and quick-witted older sister, Donna, was still there. But Theo was never exactly… _traditional_. So, he applied to Cambridge, got in, and has been there ever since – but let’s get back to his first day.

Theo was feeling jittery. More jittery than usual, which was saying something coming from him; he’d never been able to sit still a day in his life. He was always bouncing about, running this way and that, and inevitably getting into trouble. But he didn’t _want_ to get into trouble; not on his _first day_. So, he’d settled on getting a cup of tea to (hopefully) calm his nerves before he had to make an appearance at his first graduate seminar.

Rose had been sitting behind the counter, flipping through a magazine while she waited for a customer to venture in, when Theo walked into the café from the main floor of the library – or, rather, when he _hopped_ in. He was practically vibrating, bouncing from toe to toe, and the sheer flurry of movement coupled with his long, lanky limbs had prompted Rose to look up from the glossy page that she’d been skimming. He was staring up at the chalkboard menu while he hopped, evidently not having realized she was there yet, which gave her ample time to give him a once-over. He was tall, with a mess of brown hair atop his head and a smattering of freckles over his nose, and he was wearing a suit: brown pinstripes, a white button-down, and an ornate blue tie. Very smart. Yet, he managed to look smart and rumpled all at the same time – and when Rose glanced down at his shuffling feet, she couldn’t help laughing when she realized he was wearing _red Chuck Taylors_. She’d seen many people walk in here since she started about a year back; professors in leather pants, students dressed like anime characters, and one advisor who looked like she belonged in a _Harry Potter_ film; but this bloke toke the cake.

Her laughter finally drew his attention to her and Rose offered him a grin, setting aside her magazine and getting to her feet to lean against the counter.

“Can I get you something, mate?”

“Erm… yes,” he replied, pulling somewhat anxiously at his ear – _more fidgeting_ – before he asked, “Tea?”

“What kind of tea?”

“Sorry?”

“What _kind_ of tea?” Rose repeated, gesturing with clear amusement to the chalkboard behind her. He’d stared at it for a solid three minutes and failed to realize there were _multiple_ kinds of tea? It was normal for students to be distracted, anxious, and keyed-up, but usually not on the very first day of the fall semester. Everyone was typically still in summer-mode until at least a week in, when the work started to pile up.

Theo just stared blankly at Rose, blinking several times, clearly at a loss. Opting to come to his rescue, she explained, “We’ve got traditional black, Earl Grey, chai, peppermint, orange pekoe, one that sort of tastes like a strawberry malt, lemon-”

“Have you got anything that tastes like bananas?”

“Sorry?”

“Bananas. Y’know, the fruit? Or, I suppose it’s actually a berry, isn’t it? It’s got seeds, and-”

“We haven’t got tea that tastes like bananas,” Rose cut in before he could go off on a full tangent and Theo’s face fell.

“Oh.”

Unflinchingly kind to her very core, Rose couldn’t help feeling rather sorry for this bloke, whoever he was. He was clearly having an off morning and, while there was very little that she could do in the grand scheme of things, she was fairly sure that she _could_ do _one_ thing.

“Tell you what,” she mused, tapping her fingers on the counter before setting off to work, grabbing a paper cup and pouring the freshly made black tea into it, mixing it with the precise amount of milk and sugar that her mother always used. After adding a cover and a heat-resistant sleeve, she grabbed a banana from the fruit display and placed both on the counter in front of Theo.

“We haven’t got tea that tastes like bananas, but we’ve got ordinary tea _and_ bananas. You have ‘em both at once and it’s almost the same thing.”

Almost instantly, Theo’s face lit up like a 50-watt bulb had been flicked on. His smile was exceedingly bright as he looked at the tea and the banana before he turned it upon Rose.

“Brilliant! Tea and a banana. That’s perfect. Just what I needed.”

He began fishing in his coat pocket for his wallet but Rose shook her head, holding up her hand to stop him.

“Take it; ‘s on me.” Offering him a warm smile when he looked puzzled, she explained, “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”

“Aesop’s _Fables_ ,” Theo mused, his puzzlement turning into a smile of his own.

“Read it last week,” Rose stated, capturing her tongue between her teeth in a cheeky grin that made Theo’s own smile widen.

“Brilliant,” he found himself saying for the second time, holding his hand out to the pink and yellow girl behind the counter who’d managed to make his day just a little less harrowing. “Theo Noble.”

Taking his hand, she gave it a shake, her eyes twinkling as she said, “Rose Tyler.”

“Rose Tyler…” Theo mused, pulling at memories of all the books that he’d ever read before he quoted, “ _But my rose, all on her own, is more important than all of you together since she's the one I've watered. Since she's the one I put under glass; since she's the one I sheltered behind the screen. Since she's the one for whom I killed the caterpillars (except the two or three butterflies). Since she's the one I listened to when she complained, or when she boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing at all. Since she's my rose._ ”

Rose found herself blinking a few times, stunned, her hand still resting in Theo’s over the counter.

“That’s beautiful,” she breathed, her cheeks turning the faintest shade of pink. “What’s it from?”

“A French book; _The Little Prince_ by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. My sister and I read from it all the time when we were children. It tells the story of a little boy who leaves his planet to travel the universe; to see all there is to see and learn all there is to know…”

“Never read it,” Rose stated, her cheeks still pink as she finally let go of Theo’s hand, and his own cheeks turned red when he realized that he had still been holding hers. Taking his tea and his banana, he cleared his throat, smiling softly at Rose.

“You should read it sometime. It’s a brilliant story, truly.”

Smiling in return, she’d mused, “Maybe I will.”

* * *

That was over five years ago now. Neither of them were blushing nineteen-year-olds anymore, and if Theo Noble knew one thing, _just one thing_ , after his time spent at Cambridge, it was that he was head-over-heels in love with Rose Tyler –

\- and he _still_ hadn’t plucked up the courage to see her outside of the safe four walls of their little library café. But that was going to end today. He was _determined_.

Sauntering past the library’s front desk, between rows and rows of tables populated with students cramming for final exams, and around the bookshelves which made up the better portion of the Mythology section, Theo breezed into the café with more confidence than he’d ever had before, hands in his trouser pockets and hair seamlessly ruffled, glasses perched on his nose. He didn’t need them; not really. He just thought they made him look scholarly.

“Rose, I’ve got something that I need to ask you.”

Rose was sitting behind the counter, perched on her usual stool, her blonde hair pinned up and a book on her lap. It was one Theo had recommended to her last week; _Paradise Lost_ by Milton. It was a step up from _The Little Prince_ , but she’d had five years to grow her tastes. Looking up when Theo walked in like he owned the place, Rose smirked, setting the book aside and crossing her arms over her chest without bothering to get up.

“You have, have you?”

“I do,” he confirmed, stopping in front of the counter – only to find himself staring at her. _God_ , she was beautiful; all pink cheeks and full lips and warm brown eyes and soft blonde hair, curled lightly, a few strands escaping from the bobby-pins keeping it in place. He wanted nothing more than to kiss her. Maybe he’d finally get to once he said what he’d planned to say - but instead, when he opened his mouth to speak, the question that came out was, “…would you like one of my graduation photos?”

Rose, clearly not having expected _that_ to be his big question, blinked several times before asking, “…what?”

His cheeks beginning to turn that familiar shade of red, Theo tugged at his earlobe, stammering for a moment before he launching into a rambling explanation; “I, ehm, I’ve got to place the order for them next week and I need to know how many to ask for, and I already know that Mum’s going to want one, and Donna, and Grandpa Wilf and maybe some of the professors here and back at Oxford who I still write letters to, and then there’s-”

“ _Theo_ ,” Rose cut in, lips pursed and eyes narrowed. “Is _this_ your way of askin’ me on a date? Because it’s not very flatterin’.”

“I – _what?”_ Theo squeaked, his cheeks turning a brighter shade of red, and Rose rolled her eyes.

“You saunter in here like you’re king of the world, say you’ve got something you need to ask me, and then you ask if I want one of your _graduation photos?”_

“I… I… It’s a perfectly fair question,” Theo responded, his voice still a few octaves higher than usual, and Rose just snorted.

“Look at you! You’re in your nicest suit, you’ve got your hair all done up even posher than usual, and you’re wearing _shoes_. Not your trainers but real, _proper_ shoes, which you _hate_. So you honestly expect me to believe, after knowin’ you for five years, that the big question you came in here to ask me lookin’ like _that_ was _if I want one of your graduation photos?”_

“Well…” Pressing his lips together and awkwardly looking down, Theo peeked up at her again after a moment, hands still stuffed in his pockets, “…do you?”

“God, you’re daft,” Rose muttered before reaching over the counter and grabbing onto the lapels of his suit jacket, pulling Theo forward and latching her lips onto his. The kiss was long, heated, and as passionate as could be expected with a pesky counter in the way, and both parties looked reasonably ruffled when they finally broke apart for air; Rose’s brown eyes were a few shades darker than usual and Theo’s pupils were blown wide.

After a few moments of doing his best to catch his breath, Theo finally asked, “Rose Tyler, would you like to go for chips with me?”

Her responding smile was bright enough to rival one of his own when she cheerfully mused, “I thought you’d never ask.”


End file.
